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1,700 Websites In Russia Go Dark In SOPA-Style Protest

Posted by Soulskill on from the one-short-of-the-full-enterprise dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Russians are going nuts over a new anti-piracy law that enables Roskomnadzor (the Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications) to 'blacklist' Internet resources before the issue of a court order. Indeed, 1700 websites have issued a blackout, just like U.S. firms did in protest at the Stop Online Piracy Act. The law, widely known as the Russian SOPA, has been slammed by some major tech firms from the country, including Yandex. Freedom of speech campaigners are worried it could be used for political censorship, while digital companies say it will slow down the development of Internet services in the country."

34 comments

  1. In Soviet Russia... by Sigvatr · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...websites log out you!

    1. Re:In Soviet Russia... by theNetImp · · Score: 1

      why is it I never have mod points when I need them.

    2. Re:In Soviet Russia... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1, Funny

      ...websites log out you!

      That's very gay, but that also makes it illegal in Russia.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:In Soviet Russia... by davester666 · · Score: 1

      They are coming for him, and for you, for your knowledge of 'gay'.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. Don't worry Snowden will take care of that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Isn't that why he's there?

  3. Russia vs. Amerika by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's the difference between indiscriminately shutting down arbitrary websites without a court order and doing the same after a rubber-stamp judge applies his magic seal without reading the court orders*?

    * Which would cut into his precious golf time.

    -- Ethanol-fueled

    1. Re:Russia vs. Amerika by dyingtolive · · Score: 2

      Damnit Ethanol-fueled, you're sober. Get off the Internet and go buy a bottle of whisky before you embarrass yourself!

      --
      Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
    2. Re:Russia vs. Amerika by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't know what the civil courts are like, but the criminal courts are famous for their >99% conviction rate. They really do exist purely to rubber-stamp arrests. The police are often nice enough to invite visitors to pay a 'reinvestigation fee' to re-examine the case before charging though - if the bribe is to their satisfaction, the charges are dropped.

      I would assume the civil courts are similar rubber-stamps for various government agencies: Say something insulting to Putin, and you can expect someone to go over your site looking for a quote you've repeated without permission to use as a pretext to block the site.

    3. Re:Russia vs. Amerika by dimeglio · · Score: 1

      In some countries judges are elected. Having a "rubber stamper" reputation isn't going to help them be re-elected. For those who have nominated judges, the process is similar except you have to go a little higher up the political chain. In Russia, all bets are off.

      --
      Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
    4. Re:Russia vs. Amerika by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Politics 102 is "If you object to something for some reason, be sure to mention other possible reasons to object to it, on the off chance that someone who doesn't care about your reason will care about the other reason."

      Perhaps there are a number of Russian citizens who are opposed to the censorship, but are too apathetic to protest against it. Maybe there are Russian citizens who tell themselves that it will be okay, they'll probably only use it against bad guys. Perhaps censorship AND lack of any pretense of oversight will be a bridge too far. It's more difficult to pretend the government won't abuse it's power if there isn't any oversight. Maybe it will push them to oppose it, and that will be critical mass to defeat the motion.

      Doesn't seem likely, but considering that little is risked by making an issue of the lack of court order, it's worth mentioning it anyway.

    5. Re:Russia vs. Amerika by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The high conviction rates in Russia are due to the different court system. In Russia case brought to court by "Prokuratura" - a loose analog of State attorney in US. Prokuratura is separate from investigative branch of the police. In oversees police detectives and validates cases before they brought to the court. In the end, Prokuratura makes a decision if case going to reach the court or not. They are partially evaluated on the conviction rate.

      Hence in court, Prokuratura argues state side it is their MAIN duty and in their best interest to insure that cases that reach courts are solid. This essentially results in the system where weak cases never see their day in court, which leads to the apparent high conviction rates for those that reach the court. Unlike US, where weak cases fall apart in courts in Russia they are dismissed by Prokuratura. Is it better or worse than US system is a different topic of discussion, but in reality the high conviction rates do not mean "rubber stamping" - they mean that weak cases are never tried.

    6. Re:Russia vs. Amerika by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

      If the laws are more or less correct, you can then hope to have a correct justice if you fight corruption in the judicial system.

      The fact that the legal problem is just the first problem of a long list of things to solve is not a reason to not go and try to fix it.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    7. Re:Russia vs. Amerika by Zemran · · Score: 1

      Are you really one of those simple people that actually believe that democracy works?

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  4. 1700+ sent to prison and tortuere chambers by cod3r_ · · Score: 1, Funny

    Not smart to fuck with the russian government.

    1. Re:1700+ sent to prison and tortuere chambers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, it's better to cower in fear. Forever.

    2. Re:1700+ sent to prison and tortuere chambers by dyingtolive · · Score: 3, Informative

      Been working for me so far.

      Signed, Proud American.

      --
      Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
    3. Re:1700+ sent to prison and tortuere chambers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, it's always better to bend over lower and lower while empowering your abuser.

    4. Re:1700+ sent to prison and tortuere chambers by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Imagine a boot stepping on a human face...forever.

      Well, forever minus a few years now.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  5. Yandex by ls671 · · Score: 0

    I would have been happier if Yandex stopped scanning my site for a while but no luck... ...
    199.21.99.91 - - [02/Aug/2013:14:35:29 -0400] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 403 202 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; YandexBot/3.0; +http://yandex.com/bots)" ...

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:Yandex by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      It's basically harmless. Doesn't use significant resources.

      Doesn't do you any good though either: Yandex is a Russian search engine. The users speak Russian, so not many are going to be visiting an english-language site.

    2. Re:Yandex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Come on... Every Russian techie has certain understanding of English. This was true even in Soviet times (although there were and are attempts to translate popular programming languages into Russian).

      (I'm a Russian myself, although I have to post anonymously to avoid undoing moderation).

  6. What political censorship ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Russian goverment said "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX " and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX on Monday morning. Following the official announcment that XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX to be XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and will totally support Freedom of speech.

  7. What hosting company? by Utoxin · · Score: 1

    Are we sure they weren't just hosted on Bluehost?

    --
    Matthew Walker
    http://www.tweeterdiet.com/ - My Diet Tracking Tool
    1. Re:What hosting company? by amxcoder · · Score: 1

      Yeah, Bluehost, or HostGator, or HostMonster... a lot more sites than that are down in the US today. I'm sure a good portion of the US internet is down today, a lot more than 1700 sites. -jason

    2. Re:What hosting company? by masshuu · · Score: 1

      Hostgator hosts mosts of its servers with bluehost now. ...

      Probably busy today looking at the forums.

      --
      O.o
  8. Remember when.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    the soviet union was the butt of all privacy and secret police jokes...

  9. To the rescue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Perhaps Mr. Snowden will be able to help...

  10. Russian law ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They have laws in Russia ?

    1. Re:Russian law ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, we do. And as they say in Russia: "Russian laws are strict, but not mandatory".

  11. How'd they coordinate it all? by Netdoctor · · Score: 1

    Simple.

    They hosted on HostGator.

  12. Re:cu^ym by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

    the 8eaper BSD's 200 running NT

    Hmm, yeah, that would probably do the trick alright. IIS on NT in a BSD VM. I'd be on strike too if that's what I had to work with.